The benefits of eSourcing may be clear for buyers, but streamlining the procurement process tends to be met warily by vendors. The apprehension stems from the impression that any level of process automation commoditizes their products and services, and that eSourcing platforms are largely one-sided in favor of the purchaser.

For any organization, ensuring that your vendors are able to meet your requirements and expectations is critical. However, this is not just a matter of choosing partners and then passively waiting for them to delight or disappoint: how you manage your vendor relationships can have a major influence on whether they succeed or fail.

One of the best things about working on an eSourcing platform is that I get to talk to people in an incredibly broad set of fields because procurement is a universal function across all enterprises in all verticals. Since I talk to such a broad range of people, it is always striking when I hear the same complaints over and over again: it suggests the existence of a big problem.

The Amazon HQ2 RFP has gathered quite a bit of buzz due to cities competing to become the new home for the tech giant. This will be the biggest individual sourcing project that the company will likely ever undertake, by a wide margin. The money involved is huge, the commitment massive, and the time scale extremely long... this project will span an entire career for some members of the Amazon sourcing team.